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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22461073">Why Mary loves the lamb, you know, the teacher did reply</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebugtwin/pseuds/junebugtwin'>junebugtwin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ever After Shame [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ever After High</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Angst, Baby Raven, Feelings, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'm sorry?, adults being shitty, baby Maddie, so much world building, the headmaster is an asshole, welp, world building</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 17:35:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,358</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22461073</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebugtwin/pseuds/junebugtwin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Adults, as she eventually figures out, are complex. They speak in riddles and codes, or like they’re trying to say two different things at the same time. If Mr.Grimm asks her ‘what do you think you’re doing’ then he’s not actually asking her anything- he doesn’t even want her to speak, he just wants her to know he’s about to yell at her she guesses. Ms. Tremaine tells her to ‘cheer up, you’ll like this’ in her odd crackling voice and Raven knows now that she definitely will not like whatever it is she’s about to see. The nice lady who made her hazard card said that ‘it’s for the best’ like she was trying to be happy, but her face looked so, so sad.  Adults are always doing that- pretending. </p>
<p>(pretending. If she was braver she’d say lying)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ever After Shame [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Why Mary loves the lamb, you know, the teacher did reply</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Does anyone read Ever After High fanfiction. Do people post Ever After High fanfiction? I don't know. I'm not brave enough to find out. Here's the thing. This little fic is just a tiny corner of the shamefully expansive universe I've basically built from scratch to host the Ever After High world. There is no way for you, the reader, to possibly understand all the made-up bullshit I've referenced in here. But I will try to explain some of it up here, and if you see something else questionable, just comment and I'll answer!  As you shall soon see I have bent and built and discarded canon at my whim.</p>
<p>First of all. The system for fairy tale students works slightly differently. There's a long and complex history that I've made up, but the summary of it all is basically this- a book appears one day that predicts the future. Or one possible future. It says if it is to come then the kingdom will prosper greatly.  The events in the book contain every fairytale story that we know of. The events happen. A woman with the tittle of 'Evil Queen' takes over and reigns destruction, just as the book said she would, and she's defeated and the kingdom is saved by a great queen known as Snow White. Things are very good for awhile. But as the queen ages, people begin to look for the book to solve their solutions again- but the book offers no other answers, simply repeating the previous prophecy. Eventually, it is decided in secret by the royals and nobles of the land that they will tell everyone they need to recreate the books events every generation with the descendants of its main players. When the decedents sign the book their fate is sealed- they have to recreate the books events. Royals are given more agency in this, still bound by their destiny after signing, but able to make decisions- everyone else is forced into what is basically magical brainwashing. </p>
<p>Secondly, Raven is seen as a dangerous person- the idea of her rebelling from her destiny is enough to panic many- if she did then the whole system would break down. So she is isolated, first at one of the schools for young children, with her guardian being headmaster Grimm, and then later in life confined to her creepy moms house. </p>
<p>Thirdly, every magical descendant have an original name, but then it is changed to their first ancestor when they sign the book. So Raven will eventually grow up to be yet another Evil Queen,much like her mother- who's original name was 'Corvid Queen'.   (in case your interested Apple's mom's name is actually 'Bright White')  </p>
<p>Lastly, everyone who is seen as undesirable, ugly, evil, or villainous in their stories are called 'Roughs' by Royals. If they choose to go against the system they are called 'Rebels'. They usually like to call themselves 'Common Folk' or just 'Folk' for short. Most of them are pretty heavily discriminated.  </p>
<p>I want to be clear the story is not about this- its about Raven and Maddie meeting when they're kids, this is all just useless background. Anyway I'm so sorry for the info-dump and maybe in general. Have fun to the few who do decide to read this!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Raven knows that she’s a smart girl- and she knows because her sister told her she was before they took her away- she knows because adults are always sending her disappointed looks. It’s hard, but she thinks she understands finally.</p>
<p>Adults, as she eventually figures out, are <em>complex</em>. They speak in riddles and codes, or like they’re trying to say two different things at the same time. If Mr.Grimm asks her ‘what do you think you’re doing’ then he’s not actually asking her anything- he doesn’t even want her to speak, he just wants her to know he’s about to yell at her she guesses. Ms. Tremaine tells her to ‘cheer up, you’ll like this’ in her odd crackling voice and Raven knows now that she definitely will <em>not</em> like whatever it is she’s about to see. The nice lady who made her hazard card said that ‘it’s for the best’ like she was trying to be happy, but her face looked so, so sad.  Adults are always doing that- pretending.</p>
<p>(pretending. If she was braver she’d say lying)</p>
<p>As it is she says none of it, just does as she’s told. Which is sometimes wrong too- sometimes she’s supposed to disobey, or get angry, or act mean. Raven <em>hates</em> acting mean- so she mostly doesn’t, even though she gets in trouble for it. It’s not that she doesn’t want to be good- or bad- or-or whatever it is they want her to be, she <em>does</em>, but she’s bad at telling. Telling when they want her to push back or when they want her to stand down, and she’s smart, but she’s only little, and she’s still learning- this other language that the adults speak. She doesn’t think the other kids have to learn it.</p>
<p>She doesn’t see them all the time; she’s not supposed to be ready to integrate into their classes yet- not until she’s ten. But sometimes she’s allowed to go out and play with them at recess- not by herself, she knows that Mr.Grimm sends out secret spies and stuff to watch her- usually animals that he’s done weird magic stuff to. She doesn’t think he’s realized that she can sense them, like they were all colored in with highlighter, which is what all magic looks like to her. She doesn’t think he knows that she has magic at all yet, or else she’d probably be doing dark spell class. (it wouldn’t really be a ‘class’ since she’d probably be doing it by herself, but she doesn’t know what else to call it)</p>
<p>But still, it’s nice to play with kids her age. It’s nice to play with anyone really, but it’s not like she can ask any of the grownups in her life. She can tell some of the other children think she’s weird, they wonder why they haven’t met before probably. It’s usually just the folk children (she knows that’s what they call themselves now, she used to think it was roughs, but that’s just a royal thing. she doesn’t totally get it.) who are afraid of her, not the royals though. She thinks it’s because folk parents talk about stuff like her mom and the royals don’t, kinda like how adults don’t talk about kissing stuff or swears around kids. It feels weird, to be like kissing stuff, it makes her belly squirm in a way that she’s used to- like she’s a table or a door or a chair and not a person.</p>
<p>But usually even the kids who know about her destiny get over it when they all play tag or something, because everyone knows that it’s fun-er with more people.  She doesn’t have a best friend, she doesn’t even have a friend actually, just kids who are okay to her. Which is better than nothing, even if she can’t help but cry about it at night. She doesn’t understand, because if it’s supposed to be this way then why does it feel so bad? If the book of destiny wanted her to be an evil person like her mom then why did it let her think and feel and stuff? Why didn’t it just make her move around and talk like she was a real-live person but not have anything inside her? She doesn’t want to be a fake not-person, but it would be easier for everyone else wouldn’t it?</p>
<p>(Sometimes she sits alone under her covers, and a bad slow feeling hurts her breathing and she thinks, maybe it’d be easier for her too)</p>
<p>And then she meets her.  And it’s like everything horrible that ever happened to her was tiny and small and in the back of her head- because- because she has a friend! She has a Best Friend! Her name is Madeline Hatter, but she likes to be called Maddy and she sometimes talks to squirrels, and she can do a handstand for four entire minutes, and she talks a lot, and also talks really differently, but it’s like a puzzle, or a riddle or a code and Raven already has lots of practice breaking those, and she’s missing two teeth, and her favorite colors something called cyan which is like a really bright and a little bit green blue, and her hair is really poofy and hard to brush, and her favorite food is cupcakes, and she’s an only child and she lives in wonderland, and she doesn’t know what ‘discrimination’ means but she does know what a monsoon is, and she’s really good at math, and she likes art, and she’s never met her mother (like Raven!) and she has trouble sitting still, and she’s really smart, and she wants to be a ballerina or a chief or a train driver, or maybe all three- and she might actually get to do that because wonderlander destinies work differently, and Raven loves her so much it feels like she’s dying, like if she takes her eyes off of her Maddy will disappear and Raven will explode, and she’s never felt like this towards anyone else but her sister before, and it’s because its love and she loves her and she loves her and she loves her, and she’s never been so thankful she’s not a chair or a door or a table.</p>
<p>And Maddy doesn’t care if they get nasty looks, when Raven holds her hand, and Maddy doesn’t care, that Mr.Grimm keeps giving her ‘talks’ like he usually only does with Raven, and Maddy doesn’t care that she can never come for a sleepover because Raven lives at the school and isn’t allowed visitors- because- because Maddy loves her <em>back</em>!</p>
<p>Raven pours every ounce of her smart-ness into reading and learning Riddlish, because Maddy has a hard time with English. Raven waits by the front window as soon as her not-classes are over, desperate for recess to start like she’s never been for anything.</p>
<p>Before it was always like the other kids were just a bit too loud- she never understood why they yelled at each other when they got into fights, why they cried so much when they were disappointed, why every little feeling had to be so noisy and bright- but she gets it now! Because for the first time in her life she’s feeling something too big to hold in her anymore, and she can’t help but let it out, she has no choice!</p>
<p>And Raven gazes at her friend’s soft face as they laze on a hill counting clouds, feeling warm and fuzzy. And she thinks her first brave thought in a long time (but not her last). She thinks, no she <em>promises</em>, that her and Maddy are going to be together forever. That even though Raven will have to turn evil she’ll still keep Madddy by her side- and they can do whatever it is bad people do, and then after she’ll maybe go in a mirror like her mom and Maddy will carry around a personal one, like what Daring has- and they’ll talk and laugh, and finally it will be all worth it.</p>
<p>It’s not quite happily ever after, but its close.</p>
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